Dr. R. Keith Slotkin: Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; Director, Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center (ABRC) 

Title: Establishment of Heterochromatin: Transposons and Trans-Generational Silencing

Abstract: How does the cell know which regions of its genome should be transcribed (such as genes) and which should not (such as transposable elements)? The Slotkin laboratory investigates the epigenetic regulation of transposable elements (TEs) in the reference plant Arabidopsis. Our emphasis is on determining how the cell recognizes a new or active TE, how it deciphers the TE from an active gene, and how TE silencing is initiated, established and epigenetically maintained. Research has focused on two core projects: 1) the small RNA-directed chromatin modification mechanisms responsible for the initiation of epigenetic silencing, and 2) how germ cells and their neighboring nurse cells communicate to ensure that TEs are epigenetically marked and silenced from the very first cell of the next generation. 

Refreshments will be served prior to the GDCB Seminar at 3:45 p.m.

Host: Erik Vollbrecht